On September 15, 2013, the White House announced that Larry
Summers, Barak Obama’s prior chief economic advisor and a Secretary of the U.S.
Treasury during the Clinton administration, no longer wanted to be considered
to fill the upcoming vacancy as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In the
announcement, Obama (or an advisor) wrote, “Larry was a critical member of my
team as we faced down the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and
it was in no small part because of his expertise, wisdom and leadership that we
wrestled the economy back to growth and made the kind of progress we are seeing
today.”[1]
Unfortunately, this statement suffers from a sin of omission, which admittedly
had been minimized by the media as well. Accordingly, the Democrats in the U.S.
Senate who had just come out against a Summers nomination can be regarded as
done the nation a vital service. Moreover, the “check” of the
“check-and-balance” feature of the U.S. Senate’s confirmation power worked.
1.Annie Lowrey and Michael D. Shear, “Summers Pulls Name from Consideration for Fed Chief,” The New York Times, September 15, 2013.
